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From: jallen@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (Joseph Allen)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Append vs. Insert
Message-ID: <1991Apr6.064553.26182@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Date: 6 Apr 91 06:45:53 GMT
Sender: usenet@sbcs.sunysb.edu (Usenet poster)
Organization: State University of New York at Stony Brook
Lines: 33
Originator: jallen@libserv1.ic.sunysb.edu

Which is better append or insert?  :-)

Actually, does anyone know the history of ed...  why is it so oriented
towards appending?  The two styles are very different:

Append:
	Can't put cursor past end of line or end of file
	Must have zero-eth line so we can insert at beginning of file
Insert:
	The possibly imaginary places of end of line and end of file exist

Back when I was a teenager I used an editor called 'E' for a Motorola Exorciser
6800 developement system which was an insert oriented line editor.  When
I began using UNIX I was very disgusted with ed/ex/vi because they're append
oriented.

So which came first? Insert or append? And why does ed use append when
everyone else uses insert?

(Oh and does anyone know why they made ed so that the it leaves you at the
the end of the previous range instead of requiring you to explicitly
reposition yourself?)

(if anyone is interested in an insert (and maintain current position whenever
possible) version of ed let me know.  I was bored one day you see and...)

--
#define h 23 /* Height */         /* jallen@ic.sunysb.edu (129.49.12.74) */
#define w 79 /* Width */                       /* Amazing */
int i,r,b[]={-w,w,1,-1},d,a[w*h];m(p){a[p]=2;while(d=(p>2*w?!a[p-w-w]?1:0:0)|(
p<w*(h-2)?!a[p+w+w]?2:0:0)|(p%w!=w-2?!a[p+2]?4:0:0)|(p%w!=1?!a[p-2]?8:0:0)){do
i=3&(r=(r*57+1))/d;while(!(d&(1<<i)));a[p+b[i]]=2;m(p+2*b[i]);}}main(){r=time(
0L);m(w+1);for(i=0;i%w?0:printf("\n"),i!=w*h;i++)printf(a[i]+"#\0 ");}